December 2012 - NevilleHobson.com

The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #684: December 31, 2012

Intro: We conclude our 7th year of FIR (and begin our 8th year) on January 3, on the audio quality in episode 683, FIR Interview with Ekaterina Walter coming early in the New Year; Quick News: Mobile malware will be the new “urban alley mugging” says McAfee Labs report, Facebook is still the top site for sharing product information, the decision to follow you on Twitter takes less than 10 seconds, Home Depot’s mobile conversions double year-over year; Ragan promo;…

Leadership is about conversations

I came upon a blog post this weekend that addressed its subject matter in a way that I found breath-taking both in its simplicity and in its clarity. 5 Qualities that Make a Good Leader in the Social Media Age by Brian Verhoeven looks at leadership innovation as discussed in the book Humanize published last year that was the subject of dialogue among the authors Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant and others in a panel discussion a few months ago.…

The Kindle’s days are numbered

Whenever I’m on the tube in London, one thing I notice is the number of people quietly absorbed in reading a book or other text content on a Kindle as the crowded trains speed their way through the tunnels beneath the city. Amazon’s near-ubiquitous ebook reader has changed the reading habits of millions of people worldwide, and disrupted an established industry to attain a leading position in the shift to digital as the maker of the hardware platform on which…

Compelling content is king for the newspaper business too

How healthy is the newspaper business? If you look at print, the long-term prognosis is not encouraging overall, certainly not in the UK and to a large extent neither in the US, especially as the declining circulation and revenue of print newspapers occurs alongside a shift in emphasis to online versions. We’ve seen some radical such shifts this year, notably the closure of the printed Newsweek magazine and its continuation as a digital-only publication. Quartz, a digital-only business magazine, launched…

FIR Cut: Starbucks Twitter hashtag hijacked by critics

Overflow from FIR #683 on December 24, 2012. Mashable: Starbucks Twitter Hashtag Campaign Becomes Forum for Brand-Bashing Telegraph: Starbucks Twitter campaign hijacked by tax protests Twitter: #SpreadTheCheer Listen Now: Download this podcast (MP3, 3.95Mb; length 9:47) If you want to automatically receive FIR Cuts as they’re published, subscribe to the RSS feed. (What are FIR Cuts?)